The National Assembly has questioned the Minister of Interior, Hon Abdoulie Sanyang, about the position of the Ministry and by extension the Government in ensuring the availability of ID cards and abolishing the Airport Securiport fee that is taking a heavy toll on ordinary Gambians.

In response, the minister, referring to the Securiport airport fee, said "presently there is an ongoing bid and 10 companies" have already bought the bid document including four Gambian companies. "However," he elaborated, "some of the six other companies have local contents they run. Because the aim here is to prevent what happened between The Gambia and SEMLEX. That is why we are insisting to design, build and hand over so that we can operate the system from the word go."

"This system is very important because it has to communicate with all other systems we have in the country, be it the hospital, government institutions among others."

Speaking about the ID cards, Minister Sanyang clarified "the contract between SEMLEX and The Gambia is not terminated; it ended, and they requested for an extension and the government refused because the conditions were not favourable."

Asked if they were considering hiring Gambian nationals for the subsequent contract, the minister said: "Before giving contracts to nationals, they must have the competence to handle the contract. We are working on other contracts to embed the local content on the issuance of ID Cards."

He also revealed that on the issue of Securiport "negotiations are ongoing" to embed the payment of airport security fee in the ticket.

"The fee is paid worldwide," he clarified, "the only problem we have is the fee is not embedded in the ticket. We are doing everything possible to make sure the fee is embedded in the ticket and it is a must to pay whether you a Gambian or a foreigner."

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